


Nexus of Gods

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Interdimensional Bridge [26]
Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Chaos, Crossover, Dimension Travel, Gen, Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-10
Updated: 2006-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 02:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While constructing an interdimensional Nexus in the Eye of Terror, Zuna keeps getting visited by gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bloody-Handed

Meeeanwhile, in another universe entirely, a dark-haired elf called Zuna Taike was in the Eye of Terror poking at the Nexus in frustration. She was hardly an expert in rune-magic and wondered why Suzcecoz had run off and left her with this crazy project.

Even though she was never technically connected with the Chaos Gods, Zuna was hardly completely oblivious to what was been transpiring, however. She didn't, however, think much on it, putting it aside as just another oddity of this place. She preferred her own homeworld, that she could control more easily. This place hardly wanted to cooperate.

Something, or _someone_ , however, was stirring in the Warp...

Blood for blood, that was ultimately the cause and the purpose, the reason for which he had been born so very long ago. Others of his kind had fallen along the way, brought low by the vile false Gods of Chaos, but their blood had earned its vengeance through him... and the machinations of his foolish brother, he would admit to no one. He was Khaine, and his work was not yet done.

Tear asunder the very fabric of time and space, such things meant nothing to the likes of him, and turn a baleful glare upon the works of man that had sought to aid Chaos in its ways. There might yet be purpose to it, but he had not yet decided upon that, nor would he spare any that stood against him. A casual swat sends an overly ambitious Khorne fighter craft tumbling into the oblivion of the Warp as he advances to his Purpose.

The foes of Chaos were ever a cowardly lot, fleeing from him in greater numbers than might be persuaded to meet in battle, particularly in the wake of any guidance from their foul masters coming to a sudden halt. It made no difference to him, as these stragglers were not truly his concern and only the construction which he could readily discern the intent of holding his attention.

Destruction of the creation was perhaps forefront in his mind, and yet... and yet, indeed. He dismissed the few remaining minions of Chaos with a negligent sweep of the Wailing Doom, having no real concern for them in light of an Idea which would serve his Purpose well.

"Zuna Taike," rumbled ominously from his furnace mouth, the threads of power circling becoming clearer with each passing moment.

Zuna stumbled and stared up at him wide-eyed. She stood her ground, however, and didn't flee the vicinity. "Wh--What?" she stuttered.

There was much that was wrong with this one, he could sense the swirl of madness and other things around her, and yet... and yet. Khaine reached a blood-dripping hand forward curl fingers around the back of her head as he leaned forward to ask, "Do you want to live still, Zuna Taike?"

And yet, even though the black hair and purple eyes would name her a chaos elf, she was as much a pattern elf as well, and only her own choices set her upon this path. "Yes..." she said quietly.

Khaine looked into her, thoughtfully, then drew back his hand and the wrath it might otherwise bring and straightened slowly. "Then will you do this," he groaned in the voice of the volcano. "The taint will be removed of this place, and then you will complete it that my children may pass through. You will know the doing of it, and will travel forth to tell them when it is done. Do you understand?"

Zuna blinked at him slowly for a moment, and said, "I... I will try." She thought that he was a good deal scarier than Suzcecoz.

Khaine merely looked at her a moment more, then turned away, a howl arising from the very air as he raised his hands and smashed a foot heavily into the ground. Power rushed out from the impact, scouring the taint as surely as washing dust from glass. He examined his work and glanced back to her, "Do not fail my children, Zuna Taike." He then strode purposefully into the Warp, a cascade of design and theory pouring into her mind as he left.

Zuna damn well didn't feel like pissing off _another_ god, and stared after him for a moment blinking, before going to get to work.


	2. Jester

Zuna hadn't really felt much cause to complain, all in all. Even before her little encounter with Khaine, she had already thought that this entire thing was a bit silly and that Suzy's brilliant schemes weren't all they were cracked up to be. Far too complicated for what it was doing. Why go to such trouble when it could be done more directly?

She revamped Suzcecoz's design. There should be nine pylons, not eight. That would work much better, she thought. Distracted enough with what she was working on, Zuna completely lost all track of time, not that she ever really had one anyway.

Things were definitely looking up, as far as Bob was concerned, with the 'gods' of Chaos done and gone for good there was little to keep the kids in their eternal downward spiral of melancholy and introspection. Not that he really expected them to change that any time soon, but it was at least a step in the right direction and his sly commentary to his brother had indeed born interesting fruit.

Some might have considered the tool set to the task to be completely unsuitable, unstable, and insane at the very least... he looked at the chaotic elf as a bit of a laugh and a lark, the absolutely _best_ tool for the job all around. Didn't mean that he wouldn't check in on it now and again, though, and that was what had brought him out of the cosmic woodwork for now. 

As Zuna circled around a pylon, lost in her work and tinkering with ideas in her mind, she noticed something distinctly out of place... the shifting light of the warp cut off sharply nearby, the ground itself shifting to a pure white of sand with shimmering water lapping gently along its length for some twenty or more feet.

At the center of this slice of unreality an elf wearing the most bizarrely and eye-searing swim trunks it had ever been her misfortune to see was lounging on a beach chair, a reflector tucked around his neck and dark glasses shading his eyes.

"Want a beer?" he asked, gesturing idly to a cooler sitting nearby.

Zuna turned and looked, and blinked for a moment, then said, "Eh, sure..." She headed over in that direction absently.

Bob set the reflector aside and popped the top off the cooler, dragging two bottles out and offering one to her. "Harlequin's Best," he indicated the label with a grin, the emblem of a merry jester's face prominently laughing at the viewer.

Zuna took it and shrugs a bit, and went to drink, fairly well taking the situation in stride. It wasn't like she'd never encountered anything strange along the Edge of the World and in Kelen Tarnos in the Pattern Realm, after all.

Sitting on the edge of the chair and looking wholly comfortable, Bob took a long pull on his own beer, then gestured to the nearest pylon with the bottle's neck. "Interesting little toy you're building here. Think it'll be done before ol' tall, dark, and gruesome loses his legendarily short patience?"

"Er... I don't know... How long _has_ it been?" Zuna scratched her head for a moment. "But it _is_ coming along nicely."

"Oh, not all that long, really," Bob replied with a laugh. "But then time gets a little screwy in the places and spaces between the warp and woof of the universes. Brother dearest should be quite pleased with the progress so far, really. And if not," he shrugged and grinned, "There's always ways to distract him even if it means a wedgie and running like hell for a while. I've got a personal interest in seeing it done, m'self."

Zuna drank her beer as if this was all the most natural thing in the world. "How's that?" she wondered.

"Eh, too many of the kids taking themselves seriously," Bob replied with another shrug. "Probably something to do with being in a constant state of war for the past kajillion years or something. Be a good change of pace for em to get out and do something else, may even learn to _live_ or something!" He snorted with amusement at the idea, not having too much faith in _that_ , but still hoping for it a bit.

"You mean they can't just step through the Void and get wherever they want?" Zuna wondered, then thought for a moment. "Oh, right, they're not pattern elves. Right, that's why I'm building this thing..."

"Righto!" Bob replied enthusiastically. "This little trinket is gonna open a whole new world to those who'll take advantage of it." Some wouldn't he knew, probably even a majority of them, but even the chance for the smaller part was worth it! "So anyway, figured I'd drop in and see how it was going, being in the neighborhood and all. Anything need doing that a few extra hands might be good for?"

"Oh, it's coming along nicely after I modified the concept to take into account some various things Suzcecoz seems to have completely neglected."

"Hah, inventors, they're all the same!" Bob smirked. "Nothing else matters so long as the idealized dream is brought to reality. Not necessarily a bad thing, but oh the headaches that can cause... heh, feel a bit sorry for the people who'll get to see her next project in the works, but hey." He chuckled and shrugged, taking another drink. "Mm."

"Why's that? What did she run off and do, anyway?" Zuna wondered. "I wouldn't exactly call myself an inventor, anyway..."

"Nah, you're probably better for this project," Bob agreed regarding the inventor bit. "It'll get done and ready to run in no time, methinks, and without the bozos of Chaos clowning about it'll do what it should have done in the first place. As for fair, darling Suczecoz..." he snickered, "Seems she found the idea of turning a planet into a simmering whirlpool of random chaos much more interesting than working for Chaos."

"What's wrong with chaos?" Zuna said.

"Not a thing wrong with chaos," Bob chuckled. "Kinda my stock in trade really, at least to a point. It's the whole concept of extremes that bugs the hell out of me, go too far one way or the other and you're taking things waaaay too seriously and need to get a grip, or lose a bit of one as the case may be."

Zuna looked down pensively and murmured, "It seems from all this that I was born as capable of bringing about order as I am of chaos..."

"So it would seem," Bob answered. "See, that's what I'm talkin' about here. Take a look at your own history and its extremes, what did any of it really get you? Whole lotta pain and aggravation. Walkin' down the middle, with the occasional detour one way or the other not only keeps people from getting peeved at ya but tends to be a lot more exciting. See what I mean?"

"They called us the Promised Children," Zuna said quietly. "That we were the ones who could bring about change and break the status quo. Not destroy it all..." She sighed. She almost seemed to actually regret her previous actions now.

"Always the problem with titles," Bob agreed, reaching back to pull out a fresh beer and then looking back. "They have a nasty tendency to make people want to follow one extreme or another and not really think for themselves. Tsk, damn shame really. Where's the fun in living life if you're living it for some silly title that you didn't come up with for yourself?"

Zuna snorted softly. "And what else they called me. Zuna Taike, Blood of Chaos," she sighed. "Not exactly the most inspirational name to be nice and happy."

"Psht, please!" Bob snorted and waved off the name-givers dismissively. "What's in a name? Hell, I don't even remember my given name anymore other than it being far too damn long and impossible to pronounce. And who said anything about being 'nice'? Life ain't nice most of the times, itself, so that doesn't exactly put much of a burden on anyone to do the same. Of course," he chuckled, "That whole 'happy' thing tends to go along better with nice, seeing as you're not being chased all around the universes by people wanting your head on a pole."

Zuna snickered softly. "I suppose it's as well, though. It's not like there was anyone else that I know of with the same powers as me. Everyone was always saying how remarkable it was how powerful I was. But what does it mean? What am I really?"

"Ain't that always the question?" Bob nodded. "Get that one a lot flitting here and there and hither and yon. Know the best answer I've come up with? Be who you want to be, and hell with what they expect of you. People have a nasty tendency to get annoyed at each other over the smallest things anyway, so you're not gonna avoid that. Pick a road, drive down it, and take your chances... bearing in mind the whole head on a pole thing, natch."

"I don't honestly think I'm in much danger of that," Zuna muttered. "It would probably take a god to manage that."

Bob smirked, setting the beer aside and lacing his fingers over one knee. "And just what about that requires the intervention of a God, kiddo? Seems pretty straightforward to me, if ya think about it. But hey, maybe I'm wrong, enlighten me!"

Zuna snorted softly. "A god already did try to kill me once.. and failed." She sighed. "I don't get it either."

"So poke em in the eye," Bob grinned. "There's an old saying that living well is the best possible revenge. Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ pisses off your enemies more than turning things around so they can't really do anything about it without looking like the universes'..." he paused at that, putting in some extra 'z..z..z's' with amusement, then went on, "Hypocrites. So ya done some mean and nasty things in your life, right?" Bob shrugged and made a throwing away gesture. "Not important when it comes right down to it. Hell, if the light and fluffy angels can figure out a way to remove the fungal underarm stench of Chaos from its victims, I'd have to say that just about anyone can change and get a new start if they really want one."

Zuna chuckled quietly. "Well.. I suppose you're right, yes..."

"Hey, ain't I always?" Bob asked with a broad grin. "Tellya what though, don't exactly have a Jiminy Cricket running around in the trickbag at the moment, but this may do the trick." He held out a hand to her, a small and lively jester doing a handstand on his palm, all of a few inches tall. "Made some of these up for another reason, but you might find him useful to talk to when finding yourself too wrapped up in angsty thought." He chuckles, "Wouldn't talk to him when others are around though, they won't see the little bugger."

Zuna giggled and peered at the thing. "That's cute."

The jester appeared to be quite pleased at the praise and capered a bit more, then leapt to her shoulder after a quick glance at Bob and an acknowledging nod. "Careful now, he'll be a total ham if you let him," he chuckled, rose, and stretched. "Think he'll be good for ya, though, a little something to remind you of lighter things when the dark's a little too thick in your soul."

"Sure, thanks," Zuna said, giggling again.

Bob grinned and offered a sweeping bow, "Forever glad to bring a ray of light to even the furthest corners of the Warp. Be good, kiddo, I'll probably drop in and see how things are going now and again, just for curiosity's sake." And somewhere, a universe twitches.

Zuna gave a wave and said, "See you, thanks for dropping in."

With a shuffled step and a grinning wave, Bob left the two to their respective tasks, the scene returning to what it was before in a wink as he vanished. The bright warmth of the sun lingered a few moments longer, though, as the little jester looked curiously around at the brave new world it found itself in.

Zuna cheerfully returned to what it was she was doing.


	3. Orderly Chaos

It was after the competition that Zuna Taike returned to her homeworld, the Pattern Realm, to discover that it had apparently been un-destroyed at some point. She wasn't sure what to feel about its apparent re-existence, but found that she really didn't care overmuch about it. Chaos and Order would struggle against one another for all eternity there, or at least until one managed to get the upper hand and the world got destroyed.

And then undestroyed again, if whoever had done it felt like keeping the inherently unbalanced system forcing it together. Zuna sighed a bit and walked into the fields of Chaos again, crossing the Edge of the World west of the city of Taike and watching the landscape drift from relative order into pure chaos as she moved.

This might have been home once, she thought, but it wasn't really home anymore. She wasn't sure if that other place could really be home either. But neither side wanted her here, and she could not be bothered to kill them all again only to have her effort undone again. She opened a rift in reality and slipped through. She wasn't sure how long she drifted in the Warp after that, her own innate magic protecting her from the worst of its effects.

All things considered, there was little about which he might complain in recent times. Surely he had been drawn into the last folly of a Crusade, then marooned in that strange other universe through the whim of internal (or infernal!) politics, then just as insanely brought back at the whim of a madwoman to begin rebuilding, and yet... Silver eyes gaze thoughtfully into the shifting maelstrom of the Warp, thoughts adrift momentarily.

Vindictus had been a complete and utter mess when they had arrived, but time had seen it changed and turned once more toward a more logical and reasonable path than the forgotten Chaos gods had ever allowed it before. It had born a vision of great promise... until the betrayal. Even now anger simmered at the memory, when the reality was far away and time had marched inexorably onward.

Vermiis, once known as Danir, would do much to again hold his betrayers close at hand, a way to slip a knife between their ribs even as they had sought to do unto him... perhaps time would allow it, even his vision could not see the threads of possibility so clearly as to discount it. That awareness was the product of a most unlikely outcome of the destruction of all that he had worked toward, a grim jest from a fool.

The bargain, insane though he had believed the jester to be and at first wanting nothing more than to escape it and return to his brooding for the future and what might be, had turned all before into nothing in the face of what he now held in his grasp. Chaos was reborn, of his own will and mind, and even now the forces to lead it into the coming age were gathering together.

One step was his alone to pursue, however, and he twisted the strands of probability and possibility to his whim to bring two converging threads into place. "Greetings, Zuna Taike," he said amiably, appearing nearby and making his presence immediately known so as to lessen her distrust and surprise. "And how are you this fine day?"

Zuna blinked a bit and looked over toward the being addressing her by name. "I'm not sure I'd really call it much of a 'day' myself, but I suppose I'd say I'm well enough. Who might you be?"

The old appearance was clearly one that he has done away with for good, black armor resembling something much closer to medieval or gothic than the terminator armor had been, the broad black leathery wings arching at his back. "I am Vermiis," he replied, walking to stand beside her and looking out into the Warp. "Beautiful, isn't it? So much unchained potential and fury."

Zuna nodded in agreement. "It rather reminds me of home." She snorted in disgust at the memory. "Born of Order and Chaos... and rejected by both. One would think it hardly seems fair."

"What can you expect of anyone who pays strict homage to only one or the other?" Vermiis asked, voice dripping with scorn. "Both too blind to see that one requires the other, that there can be no progress without Chaos, and that there is no purpose without Order. Fools, all of them!"

"Exactly!" Zuna said. "The pattern elves, so caught up in their Order that they refused to acknowledge the possibility of any change. The chaos elves, living in near-anarchy on the Edge of the World, consuming themselves through their own madness. Fools, all of them," she echoed.

Beneath his helm, Vermiis smiled, the cold glitter of his eyes reflecting some measure of his amusement. "Always to extremes," he said, "Save for those who lack the will or might to do anything more than muddle along aimlessly through their pointless lives, slogging along with the misconception that there's nothing greater to which they can aspire. It takes quite a bit to change the ruts they all find themselves in."

Zuna sighed. "And they called my family the Kabrir, the Promised Ones. The ones who would break the cycle and bring about change. And they called us that mockingly, because for generations none of us seemed to have any magic at all. Until I came along... But they didn't realize that the Kabrir were immune to their oppressive pattern auras... Even without that power... And then I came along, with the ability to rip apart order and remake it differently, to bring chaos to order and order to chaos..."

"And still they laughed..." Vermiis said quietly. "Until they feared, afraid of what gifts you had brought them, the potential that you offered to bring about the change that one side loathed and the other claimed to desire. Your dream was their nightmare, true artistry to bring light to their age-old lies and false posturings. What then, hmm? Did you turn from what you might do, or did you grasp destiny?"

"They rejected me... and I destroyed them. I killed them all, and I pulled together their screaming souls to craft a Wheel of Chaos," she said. "I destroyed the entire world... and apparently the ethereal storms created by the Wheel were causing issues across the entire galaxy..."

Vermiis nodded slowly, eyes sifting through the shifting patterns of the Warp absently. "You had the will," he said, "the determination and courage to do what all others had forsaken, to bring about a change that they feared, whether openly or secretly. A most remarkable clarity of spirit and purpose, I must say."

He smirked as something caught his attention at the corner of his sight, a wisp of something familiar. Reaching out, he plucked the toy jester from the perch it had been silently occupying and had only emerged from now and again at a seeming whim.

"And what is this?" he mused, holding the thing between two sharply taloned armored fingers before him. "It would seem I'm not the first to have crossed your path in this place."

Zuna smirked a bit. "Yeah, the entire bit with the Wheel didn't work out too well after a deity came and kicked my ass over it. Then Suzcecoz brought me here to create a new Nexus, and then a certain bloody-handed one threatened me a bit over it, and then that one turned up..." She nodded to it, smirking a bit.

"Khaine and the Laughing God," Vermiis murmured, tossing the creature up and watches with amusement as it tumbles through the air in a vain attempt to escape before being snagged once more. His gaze shifted to her. "It would seem you're as tired of gods as I once was, Zuna, and have been much abused in the doing. What would you say to an offer that would place you beyond the reach of any save myself?"

Zuna perked up her pointed ears and looks up at him with vivid purple eyes. "I'm listening," she said in interest.

"I think you might find it appealing," Vermiis said. "Already have I begun to gather those who will carry out my will, a purpose born of Chaos and yet striving to bring an order of another kind entirely to the madness enfolding this universe. Conflicting goals, it would seem, yet as you yourself have seen and felt there cannot be one without the other. Serve and you will see the raw fury of Chaos unleashed... And then may you force the pattern of order onto it in my name, shape it as you desire to fulfill my purpose and the destiny which stretches its hand out to this misbegotten and accursed place."

Zuna grinned broadly. "I know in my blood I could never accept fully one or the other, but that sounds... very appealing. Yes..."

Vermiis chuckled deeply. "You won't regret it, trust me, and you may well find that you're aptitude toward Chaos will serve you well when it comes to stripping the veneer of order from certain worlds that they may be turned whole to the minions of the Warp." He tilted his head, looking at the jester, then back to her with a faint challenge. "And what of this bauble, then?"

Zuna gave a shrug, and said, "What of it?"

"Indeed," Vermiis chuckled and tossed the creature into the air one last time, a claw streaking out and scissoring the poor thing to wispy remnants that drifted away into the Warp. "That should give him something to think about. And of course I'd not deprive you of a pet without providing another..."

His eyes blazed and an arc of the Warp nearby began to swirl and coalesce, a shadow forming within it. Zuna made no visible reaction to the jester's destruction. She looked over curiously at the shadow, raising an eyebrow.

"There are a great many things which were lost to the mists of time," Vermiis remarked casually, the shadow continuing to grow and beginning to take on form slowly, "and I decided that not all of it should remain there. I considered it carefully, and then decided to bring their form back from the chaos to which they'd vanished..."

A great head on a serpentine neck emerged fully first, crimson eyes blinking open as though from slumber and turning its gaze immediately to Zuna in frank curiosity. The body lumbered forth after, the ground trembling beneath its weight and the sky vanishing in a broad swath behind the unfurling wings common to dragonkind.

"Order born of Chaos," Vermiis muttered, "Name him and his soul is yours."

Zuna grinned broadly, giving a good look over the being, and said, "Kaida." A word in the language of the Pattern Realm, meaning "change".

The dragon tilted its head, looking down at Zuna as though thinking about it, then nods once and dipped down to sniff delicately at her. Its breath wasn't the charnel reek that might be expected from a Chaos beast, instead bearing hints of almond and cinnamon as it took in her scent.

"I believe the name is acceptable," Vermiis chuckled lightly and walked a few paced away to look at the dragon from another angle.

"Now, the question," he mused. "Is what Gift I'll give you along with the power you've accepted. Hmm." He studied her a moment, then asked, "Have you ever played an instrument?"

Zuna pat the dragon lightly and replied, "Back in Kelen Tarnos, when I was a child..."

The dragon rumbled contentedly and moved to encircle them within its length as it settles with surprising delicacy to the ground with its head remaining watchfully near Zuna.

"Oh, please tell me you played a flute," Vermiis nearly bubbled with amusement. "The irony would be far too delicious to let slip by unheeded."

"I did, actually. Why, what's ironic about that?"

Vermiis was delighted to hear it and chuckled, hands rising to grasp a few strands of the Warp surrounding them to turn them to his will. "Irony in that you may mirror one who sought to derail the inevitable," he replied.

Light formed between his outstretched claws and swirled in an intricate dance that brightened to a painful degree before fading suddenly to reveal a crystalline flute.

He offers it to her. "Take this as a token of your vow and the returned duty it commands of me, Zuna Taike. With it you will find the ribbons of Order and Chaos bound more readily, dancing to your tune as though mere rats to the ancient Piper... and should you ever find yourself in another place, remember to dedicate a song to Sheniro for me."

Zuna gave a slight nod, and took the proffered instrument, and gave a bow to him before glancing over it a bit.

"Your work will not follow the paths of others that I've summoned," Vermiis said, "though you'll undoubtedly work now and again with Ilane as she takes over what you've shaped and molds it even further toward what I desire. The trappings of war are but a backdrop to the real tapestry to be woven and strengthened beyond any power to break it, and you my dear shall be the weaver."

Zuna smiled broadly and said, "Then I shall do what I can to bring about your desires, and gladly so."

"Then mount your companion," Vermiis said, gesturing to the mountain surrounding them, "and let's go see what I already have available that you may set to work."

He touched her shoulder lightly, setting a thread in place to siphon energy from the Warp and gradually infuse her with it, the form it would ultimately take would depend upon her own whim and desire.


End file.
